Men have seen the real value of their pay fall far more than women in the past few years

Men have seen the real value of their pay fall far more than women in the past few years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The think-tank has looked at how earnings have changed since the financial crisis in 2008.

It points out that average hourly wages for all employees are still 4.7% lower than in 2008, once inflation is taken into account.

For women the real wage drop has been 2.5%, but for men it has been 7.3%.

The IFS analysis is based on an examination of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

It takes a 1% sample of all income tax returns from employed workers, but not the self-employed. The IFS compared the data from 2008 to that of 2014.

One reason for the different experience of men and women was that "female employees are significantly more likely than men to work in the public sector and, so far, mean earnings falls have been smaller in the public sector," the IFS said.

Other findings of the analysis are that:

• the average wages of employees aged 60 or over are, in real terms, back to where they were in 2008, but for those aged 22 to 29 the average wage is still 9% lower.
• the proportion of part-time workers who say they work part-time because they cannot get more hours is nearly double its pre-crisis level.
• the top 10% of earners have seen their average wages drop more in real terms (down by 6.4%) than the bottom 10% (down by 3.3%).

The IFS commented though that the most recent government figures have shown that earnings are starting to rise faster than inflation, and are expected to keep on doing so this year and next.

"Almost all groups have seen real wages fall since the recession," said Jonathan Cribb of the IFS.

"The pay of young adults remains well below its pre-crisis level after particularly large falls between 2008 and 2011, while the average pay of those aged 60 and over has already recovered.

"Women have seen much smaller falls than men. Falls for the low-paid have been somewhat smaller than for those on higher pay, driven by trends since 2011," he added.